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UserLAnd, a Turnkey Linux in Your Pocket

There comes a time when having a full-fledged Linux distribution within
reach is necessary or just plain useful. And, what could be more within reach than
having that same distribution on a computing device most people
have with them at all times? Yes, I'm talking about a smartphone—specifically, an
Android-powered smartphone. Enter UserLAnd.

UserLAnd offers a quick and easy way to run an entire
Linux distribution, or even just a Linux application or game, from your
pocket. It installs as an Android app and is available for download from the
Android Google Play Store. The best part is that because it operates from a typical
chroot environment, you don't need to root your
device.

I was fortunate enough to have a chance to spin up one of the
early beta builds of UserLAnd. This beta build was limited only to SSH and VNC
local connections from my Android mobile device, but it was more than
enough to establish a sound sense of how things are and where things
will progress.

To handle the SSH connection, UserLAnd leverages ConnectBot while using
bVNC for anything graphical. The beta build I used supported only
TWM. Future updates will add additional window managers and a desktop
environment. Both ConnectBot and bVNC are installed when you create and
launch your session (see below).

Immediately after installation and upon launching the application, you
are greeted with a clean environment—that is, no root filesystems and
no sessions defined.

Figure 1. A Fresh and Clean
Installation of UserLAnd

There isn't much to do here until you create a base root filesystem
to use in one or more connected sessions. Now, because this was a beta
build, my option was limited to Debian.

Figure 2. Creating a Root
Filesystem

Once the root filesystem is created, you can create your session,
which includes connection type and user name. For connection types, in my
case, the drop-down menu listed ConnectBot for the command-line interface and
bVNC for a graphical environment. Future releases will add more options.